Methodology for Documenting Existing Code Base

Posted by George Stocker on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by George Stocker
Published on 2008-11-18T18:02:52Z Indexed on 2011/01/30 23:32 UTC
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I work as part of a team on an existing application that has no inline documentation, nor does it have technical documentation. As I've been working on various bug reports on the application, I've written a sort of breadcrumb trail for myself - bug numbers in various places so that the next developer can refer to that bug number to see what was going on. My question is thus:

What is the most effecient method for documenting this code? Should I document as I touch the area (the virus method, if you will), or should I document from each section on its own, and not follow paths that branch out into other areas of the application? Should I insert inline comments where none previously existed (with the fear that I may end up incorrectly identifying what the code does)?

What method would you use to accurately and quickly document a rather large application that has no existing inline documentation, nor inline references to external documentation?

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